An F.B.I. special agent who raped three women at tattoo parlors that he ran as a side business in Maryland was sentenced on Tuesday to 60 years in prison, prosecutors said.
The former agent, Eduardo Valdivia, 41, who worked for the F.B.I. in Washington, used his training in undercover operations to concoct an elaborate scheme to lure women to his tattoo parlors, which he ran under the alias “Lalo Brown,” prosecutors said.
The F.B.I. had not approved of Mr. Valdivia’s tattoo business and was not aware of it, prosecutors said.
In July, a Montgomery County jury convicted Mr. Valdivia on six counts of second-degree rape and two counts of fourth-degree sex offense. All three victims and Mr. Valdivia testified at his trial, prosecutors said. Two of the victims also spoke at Mr. Valdivia’s sentencing hearing on Tuesday, as did Mr. Valdivia.
Prosecutors had asked that he be sentenced to 122 years in prison, the maximum allowed under the law.
“This was a crime that used maximum amounts of manipulation and deception,” John McCarthy, the state’s attorney for Montgomery County, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “He was, as an F.B.I. agent, trained to go undercover. He learned deception techniques. He learned how to take on different identities. And in this particular case, he took on multiple identities to ingratiate himself to these young girls who were all his victims.”
Mr. McCarthy credited the women for having the courage to testify at Mr. Valdivia’s trial and speak at his sentencing.
“It’s the bravery of these three young women. It’s the reason we stand here today,” he said. “I want to thank them. I want to thank their families.”
The victims were identified in court documents only by their initials. Speaking off-camera at the news conference on Tuesday, one of the women called Mr. Valdivia a “monster” and said she felt she “had to speak up” to protect those around her.
“The main fact is, he’s locked up, which is important,” she said. “The main fact is, that he is separated from the rest of us, and that’s all that matters to me.”
Mr. Valdivia plans to appeal his conviction, his lawyer, Robert C. Bonsib, said in an interview on Wednesday. Mr. Bonsib had asked that Mr. Valdivia be sentenced to less than 26 years.
“He recognized that his conduct was immoral and unethical,” Mr. Bonsib said, summarizing his client’s remarks at his sentencing. “He did not engage in any conduct he thought was nonconsensual, but recognized the consequences of his conduct created trauma for the women involved, and for that he expressed his remorse.”
Mr. Valdivia had worked as an F.B.I. agent for over a decade and was informed within the last month that he had been fired, Mr. Mr. Bonsib said.
In 2022 and 2024, Mr. Valdivia lured the women with promises of free tattoos and modeling contracts, prosecutors said.
He sent the women messages in which he pretended to be a modeling photographer named L. Boogie or a psychologist named Dr. Tiffany Kim who he said was also the chief executive of a modeling agency, prosecutors said.
One of his victims was an 18-year-old high school senior who had seen Mr. Valdivia’s tattoo studio in Potomac, Md., tagged in a friend’s post on Instagram, prosecutors said. Mr. Valdivia raped her in the studio on Oct. 2, 2022, prosecutors said.
At the time, Mr. Valdivia was awaiting trial on an unrelated attempted murder charge after he was accused of shooting a panhandler on a train near a Metro station in Bethesda, Md., prosecutors said. He was found not guilty in that case in December 2022.
Two other women were in their early 20s when Mr. Valdivia raped them last year at another tattoo studio he ran in Gaithersburg, Md., prosecutors said. One of those women was sexually assaulted again in a hotel suite that Mr. Valdivia had set up for a “photo shoot,” according to court documents.
Mr. Valdivia had the women sign bogus modeling contracts and nondisclosure agreements, and led them to believe they could face legal and financial repercussions if they did not continue to see him, prosecutors said.
The woman who was raped in the hotel suite reported the crime to the police in October 2024, and worked with investigators to identify Mr. Valdivia in photographs, prosecutors said.
On Nov. 25, 2024, after Mr. Valdivia learned from his F.B.I. supervisor that there was a warrant for his arrest on sexual offense charges, he went to his tattoo studio in Gaithersburg and removed SIM cards from cameras that he had set up there, prosecutors said.
The Montgomery County police arrested Mr. Valdivia later that day.
An email seeking comment that was sent to the F.B.I.’s Washington field office on Wednesday generated an automatic reply that stated that, during the government shutdown, the agency’s operations were focused on national security, violations of federal law and essential public safety functions.
“Inquiries outside of these functions will be considered when the lapse in appropriations ends,” the email read.
Michael Levenson covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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